In a day and age where people are tending to stray away from online handles and go by their real names, it’s interesting that we still use our old handles from 17 years ago. I find that fascinating.

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Jess and Jackson went to bed early last night and I was left by myself. Not being tired, I decided to go someplace I haven’t been in a while — my PC. It’s been off for a good 2 months now, and only recently was turned back on. Before I could do anything, Jerry and I started talking to each other on Twitter all over a post I made about having some ‘me time’. This lead to a conversation about how we used to play games all the time and how we really missed those times. This graduated into a conversation about how the old games we used to play are superior to what is out there today. Next thing I know, Jerry is talking to me about a mod for Doom he saw called ‘Aeons of Death’. I honestly wasn’t intrigued until he told me it combined the weapons and enemies from all of our favorite old games into one awesome mod. Now I was more than interested. Twenty minutes of downloading and some command line work later and was playing the coolest mod I have ever seen in my life. How cool is this mod? Cool like I was up playing until 4am cool. Not only that, but Jess and Jack both took a nap this afternoon and guess what I did? Yep! I played ‘Aeons of Death’ for a good 90 minutes. I am totally hooked.

Another positive outcome of this mod was that Jerry and I did nothing but talk about games all day. This is something I can honestly say hasn’t happened in almost 8 years. I miss that. we’ve even planned a get together for a nice gaming day/night with some good retro titles.

I’m so immersed in the retro gaming again, I downloaded a build editor tonight and am going to start designing maps again for our Deathmatches.

I know iCal says it 2010, but it feels like 1997 all over again.

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Not only can you order it from the convenience of your own home (or smart phone), but you can have it shipped directly me to that you won’t have to even see my ugly mug. No awkward social interaction required!

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So while I was reading some really poorly written articles on Engadget during my break, I started to get excited about what features were being brought to the iPhone with OS 4. Then when I was showing my wife some of the features about 3 hours later on my dinner break, the poorly written articles were updated to simply contradict themselves.

Now I should stop right here. This is not, nor have I ever made claims that this site is one of literary excellence. I freely admit that some of these posts make no sense, the grammar ain’t that great, and I have more speling mistaks then anyone else. I don’t pretend to be something I am not. This is a personal blog where I spout whatever might be on my mind at the time, and then throw up a few pictures of half naked women. That is what this site has been like since 2001, and it’s not changing anytime soon. Get over it.

Now, back to those poorly written articles by a site that is an ACTUAL ‘journalism’ site. I got frustrated by the sudden contradictions so I decided to get it from the horse’s mouth myself and just watch the keynote myself when I got home. I just got done doing just that. My first reaction was humor, since the original, non-updated Engadget articles were right the first time. My second reaction was HOLY SHIT!! THIS IS GOING TO BE AWESOME!!! And then my third reaction set it. That was a total ‘Did Steve Jobs just do what I think he did?’ Let’s look into that reaction more closely.

Steve led off the keynote with some updates on the new iPad. If you’re curious about my thoughts on the week old device, you can get my opinion here. I am still of the firm belief that said device fits a certain niche. I am also still a firm believer that it is currently nothing more than a large iPod Touch. And lastly, I still believe that it is useless to me without multitasking. Once day I would love nothing more then to run my business using just an iPad. However, today is not that day, and tomorrow isn’t looking too good either. I watched the iPad info with simple amusement. It would be later in the keynote that the irony would really sneak up on me and bite me firmly in the ass.

After his little iPad speech, Steve them moved onto the iPhone and more importantly, the iPhone OS 4. He then started to rattle off a list of new features.

• Multitasking – FUCK YEAH!!
• Home Screen Wallpapers – Cool!
• Folders for Apps – FUCK YEAH!!
• New Snow Leopard-like app dock – Cool!
• Touch to focus while taking video – FUCK YEAH!!
• 5x digital camera zoom – Cool!
• Unified Mail Inbox – Cool!
• Connect to Bluetooth keyboard – FUCK YE…HUH?!?!?

That last feature stopped me dead in my tracks. I can finally connect a Bluetooth keyboard to my iPhone? This means that I can finally write proper emails and work on documents on Google Docs without using that tiny, onscreen keyboard? For real?

Yes my friend, it was indeed real. And that’s when I realized that Steve Jobs had just made the first generation iPad totally obsolete to me. For the cost of $268 ($199 for an iPhone and $69 for Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard) I now had a unit that can take pictures, video, make phone calls, works on WiFi, works on 3G, and can sync with a Bluetooth keyboard. Sure, the iPad has a much larger screen and a longer battery life, but for all functional purposes, they just turned the iPhone 3GS into the ultimate portable device. I can no longer think of a single reason to buy this generation’s iPad. In fact, I plan on driving down to my local Apple store before the release of iPhone OS 4 this summer, buying the Apple Bluetooth keyboard, and using it to run my business on the go. It now literally does everything I need it to do.

And of course, just to kick the poor iPad when it was down, Steve announced that iPad owners have to wait until fall to get their update. What a kick in the nuts too all the people who just dropped $499 (starting price) on an iPad.

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I assume you know what I am talking about by referring to Apple’s newest product, the iPad. If not, head on over to Google and throw the term ‘iPad’ into the search box and prepare for the flood.

So here’s the long and short of it for me. Did I get one? No. Do I want one? Yes. Do I want this iPad? No. Can I explain more? Certainly.

The iPad to me is my inner geek’s dream come true. Why do I say that given I already have an iPhone, a Mac and a laptop for all my computing needs? For that, you need to go back to Google and enter in the following search term – ‘Star Trek PADD’. Go ahead, I’ll wait here.

See? The fictional computing devices that Geordi LaForge, Data, and Picard have been using is finally a reality. Not since the advent of the flip cell phone has a product come to market that so closely resembles a fictional piece is Star Trek equipment, not only in looks, but function as well.

So why am I not running to my nearest Apple store to secure one? That’s an easy question to answer and it can all be summed up in one simple word – multitasking. That’s right, multitasking. This is something the iPad cannot do. Writing that document in Google docs and get an email? I hope you saved that document before you check your mail because you have to close out the browser to do so. Want to check Twitter really quick? Be prepared to drop everything else you’re doing in order to do so. See a pattern?

Now I will fully admit that this is the current experience on the iPhone, the very device that not only do I swear by now, but am writing this very post on. However, this is okay. This is a small, portable device totally intended to be a phone first, and a computing device second. Right there I fully accept there will be not only some limitations, but concessions for it’s size. Now for something as large as the iPad that is literally nothing more than a computig device, I would expect at least half of the functionality of my laptop. However, all we’ve been given right now is a lage iPod Touch. Is this a bad thing? Of course not. This will fill a need for a great many people. However, I want more.

Wanting more was the very reason I waited until the 3rd generation of the iPhone to come out before buying one. I refused to spend that much on a phone, iPhone or not, that did not take video. Then when Apple released the iPhone 3GS last year, I was out the following week buying one for me and one for my Blackberry loving wife. Neither one of us have looked back since.

So in conclusion, is the iPad and awesome device? Of course it is. But I am patient and can wait until a unit comes out and does exactly what I need it to do. And knowing Apple, I’ll be punching out more than a few blog posts via my 2nd generation iPad sometime next year.

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It’s been years since I have played an MMORPG (Massive Multiple Online Role Playing Game) and I swore that the next one I would play would be the ever postponed ‘Stargate Worlds’.

I’m weak.

While it is true that there have been many an MMORPG that has come out since I stopped playing WoW (World of Warcraft) that I have been interested in, I have been strong. I have stayed true and held my convictions.

I’m weak. They know my weaknesses.

So what happened a few days ago? I started playing a new MMORPG. One that I had held out playing for all of 3 weeks after it came out. But it called to me. It whispered into my ear at night. I knew exactly what to say and what I wanted to hear. It got inside my head and I was helpless.

Captain Trevor Shafer

U.S.S. Daniel Jackson

Yes, I am playing ‘Star Trek Online’ and loving every minute of it. And yes, that is indeed my ship, the U.S.S. Daniel Jackson.

I am weak and I make no excuses for it. But to put everything into context, I have been a Star Trek fan for almost all of my life. I remember staying up with my father late on Saturday nights as a small kid and watching the Original Series (Kirk, Spock, McCoy…) on our local PBS station. Then, when I was around 13 or so, I turned into what most people would call a Star Trek nerd. I still am to this day. I am the guy who knows all the useless trivia, both on screen and behind the scenes. I’m the guy that can receite dialogue while watching the episode. I am the guy who goes to Star Trek Conventions (and was a dealer there for a few years). And yes, I am THAT GUY who owns and wears on occasion, a Starfleet Uniform.

And for those wondering what my wife has to think about all of this? She’s totally cool with it. She has know virtually from day one how much I love Star Trek. Online, I have been going by the handle ‘Twev1701′ since 1994. Even though she was bit frightened the first time she came over to my home by the sheer volume of Star Trek stuf I have, she was cool with it and never asked me once to give any of it up. She was even cool enough to let me and my guys wear Starfleet Communicators (Next Generation style) on our tuxedos in our wedding!

Me and My Bride

Me and My Guys

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From my beautiful wife Jess, I received several new shirts. These were no ordinary shirts, but some very sweet geek shirts from Think Geek. Here are my favorites.

Streampunk Skeleton

Ship In A Bottle

Ecto-1 in Pac-Man

Ports

All of the great gifts from my wife were acquired on Christmas Eve, where we spent a nice, quiet night home alone with our son.

Then on Christmas Day I got to do something I haven’ done in years — spend it with my family. We had a great day telling stories, opening gifts, and laughing. One of the highlights for me was having my grandmother, who is 92, there for Christmas. It was nice seeing her have a great time with all the grandkids, and great-grandkids, under one roof. Gift wise though, I got lots of great new clothes for work and around the house. Although, as nice as they were, I would say that this was my favorite gift from Christmas Day.

Apple Magic Mouse

Finally I can ditch the cursed artifact known as the Apple Mighty Mouse and have a real mouse that’ll really scroll. In fact, I have been using this mouse now for a little over 12 hours and I can’t image every going back to a Mighty Mouse.

I have work today from 2pm-10pm. After that, it’s home and off to bed. I’m off tomorrow and that means it’s Christmas — Part 2. The second part being my wife’s family. We’re heading down to see her dad and his wife in Easton in the morning, and then her mother and sisters in the afternoon in Phillipsburg, NJ. Then it’s back home, find room for everything, and back to work the next day thru New Year’s Day.

So far though, this has been one great Christmas!

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I wish there was a way to get pack all of my old posts from the days of using NewPro and Coranto, but sadly, I think this will be the best we will ever get to that dream.

To celebrate, I think it’s time to fire up the PS3 and play some ‘MK vs. DC’. FIGHT!

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Anyway, I started going though on of my favorite time killers Archive.org. I typed in my original site’s address (twev1701.com) and started making a local visual archive of my site. In doing so, I started reading all of the old posts.

Time for a quick history lesson. My site started back at the end of 2001 with the purchase of the twev1701.com domain. I then purchased hosting, and tried to figure out how to make my own blog. I ended up using a program for the actual posts called NewsPro. It was a PERL based program, and quite easy to install and use. The downside was that it used its own database, not my MySQL. This meant that when I needed to re-install NewsPro or change servers, I could not do a simple dbase backup and restore. To be honest, I never really thought about that. I never could have imagined back in 2001 that I would still be doing this 8 years later. Anyway, when the time did come for me to change servers, I upgraded to the newest version, which was then called Coranto. In doing so however, I lost all of my previous posts. Eventually, years later on January 27, 2004, I installed a true blogging script called Movable Type. Then, a few short months later in April of 2004, tragedy stuck when I was screwed over by my then web host and lost not only my domain, but my entire site. Luckily, I had a backup! I then purchased the twev1701.net domain name that I use to this day, and got myself a new web host. In doing so, I decided to switch over to WordPress. I converted by local copy of my Movable Type dbase, and viola! I still use WordPress to this very day.

Why the huge history lesson? Because in looking back at the old twev1701.com archive, I got to thinking about 2 things. First, has my website become so complicated now, that the fun of tweaking it is gone? Secondly, am I the only person who misses static pages instead of dynamically generated database driven pages? I know it’s very 2002 thinking, but color me nostalgic. Don’t get me wrong, I love the automation that modern day scripting has afforded webmasters such as myself. But there’s still something to be said about a nice, hand coded site.

Another thought I had (and a project for another day) while looking though the archive is to go back and salvage as many old pre Movable Type posts that I can and adding them to my WordPress database. The one nice thing about that is that I can preserve the date and time of each post. It would only take a few hours to do, and I think having the inclusion of these vintage posts would benefit my site overall. Yep, it’s settled. That’s another project added to my list.

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Even though I fixed Photoshop, I’m still considering doing another system wipe and another fresh install of Snow Leopard, this time however, not importing my settings and programs via Time Machine. My biggest reservations are my mail, my iPhoto faces database, and my iTunes database. I’m most concerned about my iPhoto faces database, and from what I have read, the only way to preserve it is to use the Time Machine import. It’s still something I am going to have to think about.

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